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Wednesday, 16 April 2014

Ritual, Politics and Power in North East India: Contextualising the Lai Haraoba of Manipur

Title: Ritual, Politics and Power in North East India: Contextualising the Lai Haraoba of Manipur
Author: Otojit Kshetrimayum
ISBN: 978-93-82395-50-8
First Edition: 2014
Binding: Hard Cover
Language: English

About the Author:

Otojit Kshetrimayum is
a sociologist with interests in cultural and industrial sociology. He had his
education from University of Delhi; Jamia Millia Islamia; and Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi.Currently, he
is faculty and Coordinator of Centre for North East at V.V. Giri National
Labour Institute under Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India.
He is the Course Director of the
International Training programme on Managing
Development and Social Security Measures under ITEC/SCAAP Programme of the
Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

Recipient of ICSSR Doctoral Fellowship, he had taught in
the Department of Social Systems and Anthropology, Sikkim Central University
and was the founding Coordinator of the Department introducing MA, MPhil/PhD in
Sociology. He had also worked in Women’s Studies and Development Centre,
University of Delhi as Senior Fellow.

He is the Assocate Editor of Labour and Development journal. He has
edited a special issue on Labour, Employment
and Social Protection in North East India. Some of his published
research papers include Sociology of
Labour and Social Stratification in North East India: Contexualising Handloom
Weaving as an occupational Craft in Manipur; CSR Provisions in Indian Companies
Act, 2013: An Overview; Cloth, Women and Social Change: Situating
Handloom Weaving in Manipur; Rethinking Cooperatives in Rural Development: A
Case Study of Handloom Weavers’ Cooperatives in Manipur; Women
and Shamanism in Manipur and Korea: A Comparative Study; Mapping Cultural Diffusion: A Case Study of ‘Korean Wave’
(Hallyu) in North East India; ICT Integration
in School Education: A Sociological Proposition.

He was selected for the ‘Next
Generation Leaders Program’ by Korea Foundation and visited Seoul, South Korea.
He is the President of Researchers’ Association for the Study of Korea.About the Book:The
world we live today is the age of urbanization, modernization, secularization
and globalization. There has been a process of rationalization in every sphere
of life. It seems that that there is no place for irrationality in such a social
system. It has been assumed that ritual action has declined in importance in
urban conditions. Nevertheless, today, ritual is of greater importance than is
often realized. There is a need to introspect this perplexing and paradoxical
aspect.The
patterns of religious behaviour, like other patterns of social behaviour, are of
great interest to sociologists, since they underscore the relationship between
religion and society. Religious ritual is one of the dimensions of religious
behaviour. The beliefs and ideals of different civilizations are often
formulated in their rituals more explicitly than in any other cultural trait,
which gives the study of ritualism a greater sociological significance. What is
more significant here is to take into account the dynamics surrounding the
ritual not only in terms of its ritualistic or mythological connotation but
also in terms of other variables such as modernization, globalization,
migration, national and regional politics etc., which constitute important
variables influencing its dynamics. Notably, there has been a great resurgence
of Lai Haraoba ritual in Manipur
during the last few decades. It is in this context that the present study tries
to examine the dynamics of Lai Haraoba.
The main argument put forward in this study is that the rise in the number of
religious ritual of Lai Haraoba is
associated with the changing socio–political dynamics of the present Manipur
where three predominant ethnic communities constituting the Meities, Nagas and
Kukis are settled. The increase in tendency for the establishment of the
separate territory and administration of different tribes such as Nagas, Kukis
etc. has a threat to the existing polity and territory of the state. This can
be observed from two changing trends of religion and ritual. Firstly, the
increase trend of Lai Haraoba in the
state in general and urban area in particular shows the consciousness of the
pre–Hindu identity at present. And secondly, the ritualization of the tribal
identity in the Lai Haraoba shows the
basic urge of the Meiteis to reassert the integral Manipuri identity of the
pre–Hindu period. Apart from this, at micro level also there exists certain
social and political dynamics, which are associated with Umanglai/ Lai Haraoba.Lai Haraoba is a ritualistic festival of
the Meiteis observing from the ancient times. It is a ritual enactment of the
creation myth. It mirrors the entire culture of Manipur and depicts the close
affinities between the hill and plain people. It is in fact the combination of
religious recitations, traditional music and dance, traditional social values
and ancient cultural aspects. It retains the original characteristics of the
traditional Meitei religion. Celebrated in honour of the sylvan deities known
as Umanglai, the festival represents
the worship of traditional deities and ancestors. It literally means, “the
pleasing of the god” (Shakespeare) or “the merrymaking of the gods and
goddesses” (Nilakanta) or “the god’s rejoice” (Achoubisana). Lai Haraoba, which
is about the happiness of the gods after they created the world of human
beings, is celebrated in every leikai
(locality), and every khul’s
(village) laipham (abode of gods) but
not everywhere at the same time. It is a community worship wherein the site of
worship is situated outside the home, in the domain of the public. Each
festival is dedicated to a male and a female deity as a couple who are
addressed as ‘Lainingthou’ and ‘Lairembi/Lairemma’ respectively. The theme of the festival is that of
celebration of life, its origin, fulfillment of the purpose of living and the
continued existence through procreation.The
Lai Haraoba festival is celebrated
every year, sometime in April or May in different areas of the state. The
celebrations are spread over a long period that could last from a few days to a
month. It is a series of rituals. Each ritual is a combination of hymn, dance
and music. The ritualistic performance is through the medium of dance. This
festival is perhaps the most authentically Meitei of all the traditional
festivals. It is also the one which most closely preserves the ancient Manipuri
culture and philosophy, and the importance of which is increasing today.It
is in this setting that the present study tries to explore the trends in Lai Haraoba from the early days to the
present. The study also takes into account the role of state, bureaucracy,
middle class, religious boards and councils, Lai Haraoba Committees and civil society in the affairs of the Lai Haraoba. It mainly tries to locate
the relation between the ritual of Lai
Haraoba and the political identity of the state. The
primary sources of information for this study are royal chronicle (CheitharolKumbaba), indigenous archaic literature and ancient traditional
myths. There are also other secondary sources like the accounts of the British
Ethnographers cum Political Agents, and other modern writings and records. Most
of the previous scholars confined their works mainly on the ritualistic part of
Lai Haraoba. They haven’t discussed
much on its other aspects like its implications on the social, political,
economic and cultural structure of the Manipuri society. This is only an attempt to explore the dynamics of Lai Haraoba in the contemporary Manipuri
society.

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